Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 329

4th International Conference on Contemporary Education, Social Sciences and Humanities (ICCESSH 2019) Study on the Quest of Philosophical Identity: Definition of Philosophy in Chinese Historical- Philosophical Writings at the Beginning of the 20th Century*

Valery Kiselev Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN) Moscow, Russia E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract—The present article examines a range of attempts origins of Chinese philosophy" (中国哲学起源考), published in to give a definition to the term ‘philosophy’, undertaken in the newspaper "Cultural Heritage Bulletin" (国粹学报 ) in Chinese works on the history of Chinese philosophy in the Shanghaiin 1906. In the article in the framework of the early 20th century. Focus of the article is on the writings of Xie traditional Chinese approach, Liu Shipei noted that Chinese Wuliang, Hu Shih, Zhong Tai and Feng Youlan. These philosophy mainly refers to the traditional teachings of the researchers were pioneers in formulating the first histories of sages and to the canons. Chinese philosophy, and in their works, they tried to figure out the problem field of philosophy and identify the place and role In the early 20th century, from 1916 to 1936, there were of the Chinese thought in the global philosophy. Modern published several works on the history of Chinese understanding of philosophy in China is based on the philosophy. In these writings a serious work on the definition definitions provided for in these writings. of the concept of philosophy, the development of chronological and problem frameworks of Chinese and Keywords—philosophy; Chinese philosophy; history of world philosophy was carried out. Chinese philosophy; Xie Wuliang; Hu Shih; Zhong Tai; Feng Youlan II. XIE WULIANG: THE FIRST HISTORY OF CHINESE PHILOSOPHY I. INTRODUCTION In 1916, there was published the first history of Chinese The definition of philosophy in the Contemporary philosophy written by a Chinese scholar, it was “The History Chinese Dictionary looks quite familiar to the Western of Chinese Philosophy” by Xie Wuliang (谢无量, 1884-1964). reader, and at the same time, this definition has an obvious Marxist influence. “Philosophy is a doctrine of the In the introduction to the work Xie Wuliang paid a lot of worldview. It is a synthesis and generalization of natural and attention to explaining what philosophy is. He used the term social knowledge. The main questions of philosophy are zhexue, but it is obvious that this term had not yet settled by “thinking” and “being”, “spirit” and “matter”, etc.” [1]. The the time, it was unusual for the reader, so demanded word “philosophy”, namely zhexue, appeared in the Chinese explanation. Xie Wuliang argued that despite the western language only at the beginning of the 20th century. These origin of the term ‘philosophy’– «In ancient books there was two characters (哲学) — zhe (wise, sagacious; wise man, no name for philosophy. In the West, there was [a name], in sage), and xue (learning, knowledge) were combined into a the East it was translated» [4] – philosophy itself had a new word (Japanese reading of this word - tetsugaku) by a universal character. In the West and in China philosophy Japanese scholar and educator Nishi Amane in an article Bai strives for wisdom, moreover, the literal meaning of the Yi Xin Lun ( 百一新论 ), published in 1874 [2]. Chinese western term philosophy is ‘love of wisdom’, similar attitude scholars started to use the term zhexue at the very beginning towards philosophy was in China, too, e.g. «Confucius, the of the 20th century. In 1901-1903 there appeared a series of founder of Chinese philosophy, praised the love of learning works with the word zhexue in the title, although this word ( 好学) and noted that the love of knowledge leads to referred primarily to Western philosophy [3]. The phrase wisdom» [4]. zhongguozhexue for "Chinese philosophy" was first used by Giving the definition to philosophy Xie Wuliang wrote: Liu Shipei (刘师培, 1884-1919) in the article "Study of the “How did heaven and earth appear? How did all things (万物) The paper is a part of research project "Methodological problems of come about? How did the man appear? He who knows this is studying the history of philosophy in the context of translation studies" No called a wise man. If you do not know, but strive to know the 16-03008-06, carried out with financial support of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research.

Copyright © 2019, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). 274 Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 329 answers to these questions, this is the beginning of ancient Chinese philosophy before the 3rd century BC, this philosophy” [4]. work immediately overshadowed the previous writing, to the extent that many researchers forgot about the work of Xie Trying to more accurately outline the problem field of Wuliang and referred "The Outline" as to the first history of philosophy in China and, at the same time, to demonstrate its Chinese philosophy. similarity to Western philosophy, Xie Wuliang pointed out the division of philosophy and science that had existed since There was a great and rapid shift in understanding of the ancient times. He marked out daoshu (道术, the art of Tao) philosophy in China in the beginning of 20th century. Hu as “philosophy”, and separated it from “science” — fangshu Shih directly used terms ‘philosophy’ (zhexue, 哲学) and (方术, the magical art), pointing that Chuang Tzu accepted ‘philosophers’ (zhexuejia, 哲学家), without any explanation this division. “Zhuang Zhou said that the art of Tao (daoshu) of the Western origin of this term. Hu Shih understood had become unusable and after that a magical art (fangshu) philosophy as a universal phenomenon, so he didn’t pay appeared. Daoshu have nothing that would not be one, while attention to the origin of the name, but only to the fangshu cleared the various sides of [reality]. Daoshu is phenomenon itself. Hu Shih started his research of the philosophy, and fangshu is science” [4]. history of Chinese philosophy from the definition of the latter. For him, “[a]ny science that explores the most Xie Wuliang believed that Confucian Six Classics1 and 2 important issues of human life, and in the search of basic the nine schools of thought included all those areas that solutions reasoning from its origins, is called philosophy" [7]. made up the content of modern Western philosophy, i.e. This definition, on one hand, shows anthropological metaphysics, epistemology and ethics. approach of the traditional Chinese thought (focused on the Based on this, Xie Wuliang concluded that Chinese problems of human life), and on the other hand reflects a thought could be defined as‘philosophy’, and it corresponded pragmatist background of Hu Shih (centered on solving to the Western understanding of philosophy. Philosophy in specific problems and based on the idea of division of China originated in ancient times. The origins of philosophy and science). In later works Hu Shih made philosophical (Xie Wuliang insisted that it was precisely definition of philosophy more precise, he wrote,“[p] philosophy, not pre-or protophilosophy) knowledge he saw hilosophy examines the most important issues of human life, in the ideas of the mythological rulers of ancient China, Fu comprehending them from the point of view of significance, Xi and Huang-di [4]. and seeks significance that can be to a certain extent universal” [8]. Clarifying the role of philosophy, Hu Shih Readers perceived the “History of Chinese Philosophy” pays much attention to the ethical component of the extremely critically. It was noted that the innovation of this philosophical thought. For him, "ordinary people either work was only in the title and the definition of the term convince others to do well and not wrong, or encourage good "philosophy", while the main content was a retelling of the deeds and punish the bad", while “philosophers, when “Shiji” (史记, "The Records of the Grand Historian") and meeting with similar problems, study what is “good” and other canonical works [5], [6]. “evil”, find out the nature of “good” and “evil” [7]. In “The Outline”, Hu Shih also brought forward a III. HU SHIH: CHINESE PRAGMATIST AND EXPERIMENTER concept of the development of world philosophy. In his A completely different approach to understanding opinion, there were four sources of the origin of philosophy, philosophy can be seen in the second work on the history of i.e. China, India, Greece and Judea. As a result of historical Chinese philosophy, in "The Outline of the History of interaction, Indian philosophy merged with Chinese, giving Chinese Philosophy" by Hu Shih ( 胡适, 1891-1962), rise to neo-Confucianism, and Jewish philosophy dissolved published in Shanghai in 1919. Hu Shih was the most into Greek, forming medieval European philosophy. Hu Shih devoted of all the Chinese students of John Dewey (1859- was extremely optimistic about the future formation of a 1952). After returning to China, he actively promoted unified world philosophy based on the synthesis of neo- pragmatism, participated in organizing Dewey's visit to Confucianism and Western philosophy. China, translated his lectures, and also consistently applied pragmatist methodology in his studies on Chinese IV. ZHONG TAI: TRADITIONALISTIC APPROACH AND philosophy, literature and culture. REJECTION OF ANALOGIES WITH THE WEST “The Outline of the history of Chinese philosophy. In 1929 Zhong Tai published “The History of Chinese Volume 1” was published three years after the publication of Philosophy”. Zhong Tai (钟泰, 1888-1879) studied in Japan “The History of Chinese Philosophy” by Xie Wuliang. at the University of Tokyo. At the time of the publication of Although only the first volume was published, devoted to the “The History of Chinese Philosophy”, he was a professor at the department of Studies of Chinese ancient civilization at 1 Six Classics: namely: Book of Songs (诗经), Book of History (尚 the Zhijiang University (Hangzhou, China). 书 仪礼 周易 ), Book of Rites ( ), Book of Changes ( ), Spring and Autumn Unlike Xie Wuliang and Hu Shih, Zhong Tai in his work Annals (春秋) and the lost Book of Music (乐经) 2 consciously refused to draw any parallels with Western Philosophical schools of the Springand Autumnand Warring philosophy. He refused to consider Western philosophy as a States Periods (770-220 BC): Confucians (儒家), Daoists (道家), YinandYang (阴阳家), Legalists (法家), Logicians (名家), Mohists (墨家), model for a Chinese one, moreover, he believed that any Diplomats (纵横家), Miscellaneous (杂家), and Agriculturalists (农家). analogy and, even more, usage of the terms of Western

275 Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 329 philosophy to describe Chinese philosophy would lead to the term ‘philosophy’, he wrote, “the definitions of ‘philosophy’ distortion of the latter. “Western and Chinese teachings have of various philosophers differed ... Knowing its content, one their own systems. Forcible convergence of the systems can know what philosophy is, and the official definition of leads to the destruction of the systems’ features” [9]. Zhong the word philosophy is not necessary to be given Tai advocated the independent origin and existence of the specifically” [11]. Instead of giving the definition, Feng systems of Western and Chinese philosophy, so he defended Youlan provided a framework of Greek philosophy, that is the completely independent character of Chinese philosophy for him physics, ethics, logic, or, in modern terms, a theory [9]. of world, a theory of life, and a theory of knowledge [11]. Thus, philosophy is a set of reflections of intellectuals on the Before Feng Youlan published in 1931-1934 his “History queries inside this framework. of Chinese Philosophy”, the work of Zhong Tai was the most complete history of Chinese thought, it covered issues According to Feng Youlan, Western philosophy in its starting from the philosophical views of the Zhou dynasty to basic ideas is similar to xuanxue ( 玄学, learning of the the ideas of statesmen and Confucian scholar of the late Qing mystery) of the Wei and Jin dynasties, daoxue (道学, learning dynasty Zeng Guofan (曾国藩, 1811-1872). of the truth) of the Song and Ming dynasties and the yilixue (义理学, learning of the principles) of the Qing dynasty [11], In Zhong Tai's writing, the word zhexue is used without so Feng Youlan specially noticed that the terms ‘Chinese special explanations of its western origin. Obviously, Zhong philosophy’ and ‘Chinese philosophers’ are valid and liable Tai was used to this term while studying in Japan and did not for use. Feng Youlan noted that Chinese and Western perceive it either as a translation of the Western term, or as philosophies were not equal in all three spheres of an analogy with Western philosophy. philosophical knowledge. Chinese philosophy didn’t pay According to Zhong Tai, “[f]rom the time of the Zhou much attention to a theory of knowledge, while Chinese dynasty, one can speak of Chinese philosophy as a system”, thinkers were focused on a theory of world and a theory of but he noted that the origin of Chinese philosophy is more life (or ethics and metaphysics as it was translated by Bodde ancient, “Confucius praised “Yi-[jing]”, and “Yi-[jing]” in the English publication of the book). Western originates from the trigrams of Fu Xi; Tzu Si in the "Zhong philosophers developed all parts of philosophy, but Chinese Yun" talked about following the middle, and this was philosophers mainly focused on human problems, and one precisely the reason why Yao transferred power to Shun” [9]. can find only a few references about cosmological and other Unlike other authors of the histories of Chinese philosophy, issues. Feng Youlan shows that the thoughts of the Chinese Zhong Tai did not search for similarities with Western thinkers in the sphere of methodology, argumentation and philosophy, but tried to mark out a completely unique, explanation are mediocre comparing to Western and Indian specific to Chinese philosophy system of categories, e.g. philosophies [11]. Main focus of Chinese thinkers, according primordial sky, filial piety, following the middle, Tianxia Feng Youlan, was on the search for happiness, and they (All under Heaven), etc. [9]. considered knowledge only as instrument for achieving it. Thus, they were not interested in pure knowledge itself. It Many contemporary readers thought that this attitude was was Feng’s explanation of the lack of methodology in regressive. Taking into consideration the spread and Chinese philosophy. Chinese thinkers were trying to answer influence of the “doubt in antiquity” approach (yigu, 疑古) the question "what is a person" and not "what does a person during that period, it is understandable. Today, researchers have", so they reflected on the moral qualities of a person, are returning to an analysis of his concept, appreciating it as and not on his intellectual characteristics. "If a man is a Sage, an alternative way to strengthen the national identity of he remains a Sage, even if he is completely lacking Chinese philosophy, although even now a number of intellectual knowledge; if he is an evil man, he remains evil, researchers of Chinese philosophy criticize Zhong Tai's but he may have boundless knowledge"[12]. position for “trying to return the scientific nature of Chinese philosophy to antiquity” and the “teachings of the canons” [10]. VI. CONCLUSION After 1949, the search for the identity of Chinese V. FENG YOULAN: RESTORATION OF THE ROLE OF philosophical thought within the framework of a universal CONFUCIANISM IN WESTERN TERMS epistemological model based primarily on the achievements of Western philosophy was continued in Hong Kong and “History of Chinese Philosophy” by Feng Youlan (冯友兰, Taiwan by such thinkers as Mou Zongsan (牟宗三, 1909- 1895-1990) is the best known book on the history of Chinese 1995), Tang Junyi (唐君毅, 1909-1978), Xu Fuguan (徐复观, philosophy in the West. It was translated into English by 1903-1982). Derk Bodde (1909-2003), and Feng Youlan himself wrote in English “The Short History of Chinese Philosophy”. In the PRC, following the development of the Marxist thought, there was a Marxist understanding of philosophy, In the introduction to his research, Feng Youlan pointed the idea that “two opposite trends were formed, idealistic and out that the word ‘philosophy’ has the Western origin. Feng materialistic philosophy” [1]. Youlan thought that the main task of the researcher of Chinese philosophy is to clarify correlation of the ideas of At the beginning of the 21st century, the People's Chinese thinkers and the Western name of philosophy [11]. Republic of China once again began a discussion about the Feng Youlan intentionally didn’t give the definition to the legitimacy of the term ‘Chinese philosophy’, in which

276 Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 329 researchers discussed questions about the formation of a new view of understanding both Chinese philosophy and world philosophy. All these areas of the development of philosophical thought in China originate from the first histories of Chinese philosophy, elaborated by the Chinese scientists in the early twentieth century. These works laid the foundation for a modern understanding of philosophy in China and possible models for its further development.

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